When yesterday’s expo was first pitched to us in May it was in hushed tones; a second, secret expo to follow up on the success of February’s two day event. At the time we’d thought it would be small, low-key, maybe even a little quiet too – but boy, were we wrong!
Organiser Mike Allwoord has been running and attending expos in Britain for many years – he was part of the team that ran Bristol’s May expo before the convention scene really took off and he certainly seems to know what he’s doing. When we arrived we expected to see maybe a hundred people come through the doors. It was, after all, a smaller one day event. Instead we were taken by surprise looking out the window fifteen minutes before the doors opened when we saw a queue going right down the street!
When the doors did open and the crowd poured in there was a fantastic atmosphere despite the (rather wet) weather outside. We didn’t manage to get any photos of cosplayers but I’m sure pictures will surface over the next few days. Costumes worth mentioning included an exceptionally authentic looking 1978-style Cylon and a David Tennant 10th Doctor with accompanying Tardis. As always though, the quality of cosplay costumes was very high.
We were pleased at the public’s reactions both to the newly released Thackeray #3 and to Not as Pointless as You Think, which sold surprisingly well considering the expo was primarily a comic event and NAPAYT is a prose collection of short stories.
At every con and expo we’ve been to we’ve been astounded by how nice everyone in the industry is; it’s like a giant family of like-minded individuals, so it was great to catch up with Scott Stanford, Mark and the team from Hellbound Media, Timebomb comics (who had their 5th birthday celebrations this week) and everyone else we’ve met on our travels.
Overall we had great fun yesterday and look forward to next year’s ‘secret second expo in Cardiff’. We’re told that next year will be horror themed and called Scarediff – you can bet we’ll be there!
Alas, Cardiff’s secret expo yesterday was our last big public appearance for 2012 – but we’re already confirmed our attendance for CICAE 2013 and Bristol SPEXPO 2013 and have several other shows in the pipeline, so if you’ve missed us this year, we’ll be back soon.
